Nine years after launch, Team Cherry has quietly dropped a new patch for Hollow Knight, and it touches the one fight that has ended more runs than almost anything else in the game.
The update, released on March 29, 2026, looks modest at first glance. Traditional Chinese language support, an audio fix for the inventory screen, a couple of alignment tweaks. Standard housekeeping for an older title. Then you hit the line that actually matters: “Fixed Radiance's orb attack hitbox lingering slightly longer than intended if the orb expires in the air.”
The bug that was quietly punishing players for years
Here's the thing about The Radiance fight: it's already one of the most demanding encounters in modern metroidvania history. Players spend hours grinding through Hollow Knight's final stretch just to reach her, and the orb phase has always been a wall. What most players didn't know is that those orbs were technically more dangerous than they looked. When an orb expired mid-air, its hitbox stuck around a fraction longer than the visual suggested, meaning players were taking hits from attacks that appeared to be gone.
That kind of invisible punishment is the worst type of difficulty. It's not a skill gap. It's the game lying to you about what's happening on screen.
Team Cherry has now acknowledged that and corrected it. The orbs will behave the way they look from here on out.
Everything else in the patch
The Radiance fix is the headline, but the full patch covers a solid spread of issues:
- Traditional Chinese translation added
- Fixed low audio volume when navigating the inventory
- Fixed text alignment overlapping when wide keys (Shift, Space, etc.) are bound to actions
- Fixed overcharmed notches being unintentionally removed in a specific instance
- Fixed Mawlurks being pushable by Infected Balloons
- Fixed Mantis Traitors being damageable while underground
- Fixed Journal notification icons sometimes not appearing or showing the wrong icon
- Fixed various instances of the 'New Journal Entry' pop-up not displaying
- Fixed minor instances of Hunter's note kills not being awarded correctly
- Fixed Baldur Shell sometimes lingering longer than intended
- Fixed double damage playing the wrong audio clip (was incorrectly playing single damage sfx)
- Fixed Heavy Fool's dash attack sometimes not travelling its full distance
- Various performance improvements and small fixes
The Baldur Shell fix is worth a mention too. That charm absorbing hits longer than it should have been is the kind of thing that skews practice runs in ways players might not even notice.
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The Radiance is Hollow Knight's true final boss, accessible only after completing a specific sequence of events. If you haven't reached her yet, the path involves the Dream Nail and the Black Egg Temple.A live game that refuses to go quiet
What makes this patch genuinely interesting isn't just the fixes. It's that Team Cherry is still actively maintaining a nine-year-old game at all. Most studios move on. The fact that the studio is still combing through Hollow Knight's hitboxes and audio clips in 2026 says something about how seriously they take the game's legacy.
The timing also lands alongside significant activity on the Hollow Knight: Silksong side. Team Cherry recently detailed what it described as the last major update for Silksong before the Sea of Sorrow expansion, a free nautical-themed addition bringing new areas, bosses, and tools. That expansion is expected sometime this year.
For anyone who has Hollow Knight installed and unfinished, or for those who bounced off The Radiance and quietly gave up, this patch is a legitimate reason to go back. Keep an eye on the latest Silksong news if you want to track what Team Cherry has planned next for the broader Hollow Knight universe. Make sure to check out more:
